The continuing adventures of a girl and her dogs
...and now also partner and baby...

Tuesday, March 27

The ICC and more pics

Today I went with a group from the law school to the International Criminal Court in Den Haag. The ICC is the world's only permanent international criminal court, and is separate from the UN, established via its own charter called the Rome Statute. They have yet to have a prosecution, although they are working on three important cases: Uganda, Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The court only has jurisdiction beginning in 2002, so I think it will take several years before they have a real presence and impact, but everything has to have a beginning point. Only one person is even in custody! We met with a woman who works in Judges chambers and another who works for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP, everything has initials around here!!)

It was quite exciting to see even though there are no cases going on. The courtrooms are much like the ones at the ICTY except that there are no windows at all which will not make the cases any easier I imagine. It is already likely to take years to complete each case. The building is an old parking garage and is meant to only be temporary for the ICC, but they'll be there at least until 2012.

Anyway, now that the law news is out of the way, here are some more pictures!! (Sorry, the writing is not too inspired today! I had only about 4 hours of sleep last night and then took a luxurious nap on the sofa in the sun this afternoon, with a breeze gently blowing through the apartment. Thus, thrilling text is not exactly at my fingertips at present!)

My mom, always with the sweet tooth, found this candy shop in Utrecht. These two ladies were so nice and there is a museum upstairs with antique grocery items:I took mom to the Kasteel de Haar and she took this nice picture!For Dan: (Sorry dude, it's empty. I enjoyed it though! For those of you who don't know, this is Budweiser Beer, real Budweiser, the original from Czech, not that ripoff we are oh-too-familiar with back home, this stuff is actually good!)The fam in Delft: Carrie always on the lookout:The rest are all from the Keukenhof (pronounced: coke-in-hof)Cool Kangaroo Chair!Always happy around flowers!We climbed this windmill!My most favorite patch: